Clergyman and satirist, born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Dublin, then moved to England, where he became secretary to the diplomat, Sir William Temple. During a visit to Ireland, he was ordained in the Anglican Church (1695). He wrote several poems, then turned to prose satire, exposing religious and intellectual complacency in A Tale of a Tub (1704), and produced a wide range of political and religious essays and pamphlets. He was made Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, at the fall of the Tory ministry in 1714, and afterwards visited London only twice. His world-famous satire, Gulliver's Travels, appeared (anonymously, like all his works) in 1726. In later years he wrote a great deal of light verse, and several essays on such topics as language and manners. He also progressively identified himself with Irish causes, in such works as The Drapier's Letter (1724) and the savagely ironic A Modest Proposal (1729).
Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B.
Biography
Jonathan Swift was born at No. 8, Hoey's Court, Dublin, and was the second child and only son of Jonathan and Abigail Erick (or Herrick) Swift, who were English immigrants. Most of the facts of Swift's early life are obscure, confused and sometimes contradictory. Swift was studying for his Masters when political troubles in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution forced him to leave for England in 1688, where his mother helped him get a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple at Moor Park.
When Swift took up his residence at Moor Park, he met Esther Johnson, then 8 years old, the fatherless daughter of one of the household servants. Swift acted as her tutor and mentor, giving her the nickname "Stella" and the two maintained a close, but ambiguous, relationship for the rest of Esther's life.
Swift left Temple in 1690 for Ireland because of his health, but returned to Moor Park the following year. The illness, fits of vertigo or giddiness, now known to be Ménière's disease, would continue to plague Swift throughout his life. During this second stay with Temple, Swift received his M.A. Then, apparently despairing of gaining a better position through Temple's patronage, Swift left Moor Park to be ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland and was appointed to a prebend in Kilroot, near Carrickfergus in 1694.
Swift was miserable in his new position, being isolated in a small, remote community. She must have refused, because Swift left his post and returned to England and Temple's service at Moor Park in 1696 where he remained until Temple's death. During this time Swift wrote The Battle of the Books, a satire responding to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1690). Swift stayed on briefly to finish editing Temple's memoirs, perhaps in the hope that recognition of his work might earn him a suitable position in England. However, Swift's work made enemies of some of Temple's family and friends who objected to indiscretions included in the memoirs.
At Laracor, a mile or two from Trim, and twenty miles from Dublin, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage. In 1701, Swift published, anonymously, a political pamphlet, A Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome.
In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College, Dublin. There is a great mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Esther Johnson nicknamed "Stella".
During his visits to England in these years Swift published A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704) and began to gain a reputation as a writer.
Swift became increasingly active politically in these years. From 1707 to 1709 and again in 1710, Swift was in London, unsuccessfully urging upon the Whig administration of Lord Godolphin the claims of the Irish clergy to the First-Fruits and Twentieths ("Queen Anne's Bounty"), which brought in about £2500 a year, already granted to their brethren in England. He found the opposition Tory leadership more sympathetic to his cause and Swift was recruited to support their cause as editor of the Examiner when they came to power in 1710. In 1711, Swift published the political pamphlet "The Conduct of the Allies," attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France.
Swift was part of the inner circle of the Tory government and often acted as mediator between Henry St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke) the secretary of state for foreign affairs (1710-15) and Robert Harley (Earl of Oxford) lord treasurer and prime minister (1711-4). Swift recorded his experiences and thoughts during this difficult time in a long series of letters to Esther Johnson, later collected and published as The Journal to Stella.
Also during these years in London, Swift became acquainted with the Vanhomrigh family and became involved with one of the daughters, Hester, yet another fatherless young woman and an ambiguous relationship to confuse Swift's biographers. Swift furnished Hester with the nickname "Vanessa" and she features as one of the main characters in his poem Cadenus and Vanessa. The poem and their correspondence suggests that Hester was infatuated with Swift, that he may have reciprocated her affections, only to regret it and then try to break it off. Hester followed Swift to Ireland in 1714, where there appears to have been a confrontation, possibly involving Esther Johnson.
Before the fall of the Tory government, Swift hoped that his services would be rewarded with a church appointment in England. However, Queen Anne appeared to have taken a dislike to Swift and thwarted these efforts. With the return of the Whigs, Swift's best move was to leave England and he returned to Ireland in disappointment, a virtual exile, to live "like a rat in a hole".
Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works;
Swift returned to England one more time in 1727 and stayed with Alexander Pope once again. The visit was cut short when he received word that Esther Johnson was dying and Swift rushed back home to be with her. Though he prayed at her bedside, even composing prayers for her comfort, Swift could not bear to be present at the end, but on the night of her death he began to write his very interesting The Death of Mrs. Johnson.
Death became a frequent feature in Swift's life from this point. In 1738 Swift began to show signs of illness and in 1742 he appears to have suffered a stroke, losing the ability to speak and realizing his worst fears of becoming mentally disabled. Then, on October 19, 1745, Swift died.
Epitaph
Swift wrote his own epitaph:
Hic depositum est corpus JONATHAN SWIFT S.T.D.Writings
Dating generally follows the Norton Critical and Oxford Authors single-volume editions of Swift's writings, as well as Herbert Davis's (ed.) Swift: Poetical Works.
Works
Major Prose
In 1708, when a cobbler named John Partridge published a popular almanac of astrological predictions, Swift attacked Partridge in Prediction For The Ensuing Year by Isaac Bickerstaff, a parody predicting that Partridge would die on March 29th. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on March 30th claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary. In 1729, Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal", supposedly written by an intelligent and objective "political arithmetician" who had carefully studied Ireland before making his proposal.
Essays, Tracts, Pamphlets, Periodicals
"A Meditation upon a Broomstick" (1703-1710): Full text: Blackmask "A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind" (1707-1711) The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers (1708-1709): Full text: U of Adelaide "An Argument against Abolishing Christianity" (1708-1711): Full text: U of Adelaide The Intelligencer (with Thomas Sheridan) (1710-????): Text: Project Gutenberg The Examiner (1710): Texts: Ourcivilisation.com, Project Gutenberg "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue" (1712): Full texts: Jack Lynch, U of Virginia "On the Conduct of the Allies" (1713) "Hints Toward an Essay on Conversation" (1713): Full text: Bartleby.com "A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Entered into Holy Orders" (1720) "A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet" (1721): Full text: Bartleby.com The Drapier's Letters (1724, 1725): Full text: Project Gutenberg "Bon Mots de Stella" (1726): a curiously irrelevant appendix to "Gulliver's Travels" "An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen": Full text: JaffeBros "A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding": Full text: Bartleby.com "On the Death of Esther Johnson": Full text: Bartleby.com "An Essay On Modern Education": Full text: JaffeBrosPoems
"Ode to the Athenian Society" 1692 (first published work) Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Texts at Project Gutenberg: Volume One, Volume Two "Baucis and Philemon" (1706-1709): Full text: Blackmask "A Description of the Morning" (1709): Full annotated text: U of Toronto; Another text: U of Virginia "A Description of a City Shower" (1710): Full text: U of Virginia "Cadenus and Vanessa" (1713): Full text: Blackmask "Phillis, or, the Progress of Love" (1719): Full text: theotherpages.org Stella's birthday poems: 1719. Full annotated text: U of Toronto 1720. Full text: U of Virginia 1727. Full text: U of Toronto "The Progress of Beauty" (1719-1720): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Progress of Poetry" (1720): Full text: theotherpages.org "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" (1722): Full text: U of Toronto "To Quilca, a Country House not in Good Repair" (1725): Full text: U of Toronto "Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers" (1726): Full text: U of Toronto "The Furniture of a Woman's Mind" (1727) "On a Very Old Glass" (1728): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "A Pastoral Dialogue" (1729): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "The Grand Question debated Whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Barrack or a Malt House" (1729): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "On Stephen Duck, the Thresher and Favourite Poet" (1730): Full text: U of Toronto "Death and Daphne" (1730): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Place of the Damn'd" (1731): Full text "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch; Another text: U of Virginia "Strephon and Chloe" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch; Another text: U of Virginia "Helter Skelter" (1731): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "Cassinus and Peter: A Tragical Elegy" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch "The Day of Judgment" (1731): Full text "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D." (1731-1732): Full annotated texts: Jack Lynch, U of Toronto; Non-annotated text:: U of Virginia "An Epistle To A Lady" (1732): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Beasts' Confession to the Priest" (1732): Full annotated text: U of Toronto "The Lady's Dressing Room" (1732): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch "On Poetry: A Rhapsody" (1733) "The Puppet Show" Full text: Worldwideschool.org "The Logicians Refuted" Full text: Worldwideschool.orgCorrespondence, Personal Writings
"When I Come to Be Old" — Swift's resolutions. (1699): Full text: JaffeBros The Journal to Stella (1710-1713): Full text: U of Adelaide; Full text: U of Adelaide, Project Gutenberg Three Sermons: I. Full text: Worldwideschool.org "The Second Prayer Was Written Nov. 6, 1727." Full text: Worldwideschool.orgMiscellany
Directions to Servants (1731):: Extracts: OurCivilisation.com A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1731) "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Full text: U of Adelaide Historical Writings: Project Gutenberg Swift Quotations: JaffeBros — Many choice, well-documented Swift quotations here. Swift quotes at Bartleby: Bartleby.com — 59 quotations, with notes. See, Timeline of environmental eventsWorks
Jonathan Swift was a prolific writer.
The subjects and themes of Jonathan Swift's writings generally and understandably follow the events and concerns in his life. Throughout these larger trends are the personal writings which give tantalizing but inconclusive hints about Swift's inner life.
Major Prose Works
A Tale of a Tub 1696 (published 1704) The Battle of the Books 1697 (published 1704) "When I Come to Be Old" 1699 "A Letter Concerning the Sacramental Test" 1708 "Sentiments of a Church of England Man" 1708 "Bickerstaff/Partridge" papers 1708 "Proposal for the Advancement of Religion" 1709 Examiner 1710 - The Conduct of the Allies 1711 An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity 1711 Correcting the English Tongue 1712 Public Spirit of the Whigs 1714 A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet 1720 The Drapier's Letters to the People of Ireland Against Receiving Wood's Halfpence 1724 Gulliver's Travels 1726 A Modest Proposal 1729 A Complete Collection Of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation 1738Swift's first major prose play, A Tale of a Tub, demonstrates many of the themes and stylistic techniques he would employ in his later work.
In 1690, Sir William Temple, Swift's patron, published An Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning a defense of classical writing (see Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns) holding up the Epistles of Phalaris as an example. A response by the supporters of the Ancients was then made by Charles Boyle (later the 4th Earl of Orrery and father of Swift's first biographer). However, the final words on the topic belong to Swift in his Battle of the Books (1697) in which he makes a humorous defense on behalf of Temple and the cause of the Ancients.
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